Translation Practice- Genetics

Learn how to convert a strand of mRNA into a polypeptide which is a chain of amino acides. This is called translation and it is one step of protein synthesis. mRNA is created from a template of DNA and uses the same bases except uracil replaces thymine. The strand of messenger RNA is always read from the 5 prime end towards the 3 prime end in triplets called codons. A codon is a DNA or RNA sequence of three nucleotides. There are three guidelines that should be followed when translating the mRNA. Always starts at AUG 3 Stops UAA UAG UGA Always reads 5’ to 3’

A codon chart will need to be used in order to translate the codon to an amino acid.

Here is a list of the 20 Amino Acids that go along with the Codon Chart.

alanine - ala - A 

arginine - arg - R 

asparagine - asn - N     

aspartic acid - asp - D 

cysteine - cys - C 

glutamine - gln - Q 

glutamic acid - glu - E

glycine - gly - G 

histidine - his - H 

isoleucine - ile - I 

leucine - leu - L 

lysine - lys - K 

methionine - met - M 

phenylalanine - phe - F 

proline - pro - P 

serine - ser - S 

threonine - thr - T 

tryptophan - trp - W 

tyrosine - tyr - Y

valine - val - V

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